Opus XI
Amouage (2018)

Dark, leathery, woody, loaded with styrax and synthetic oud. Very, very loud and fairly linear -- make sure you like it before dousing yourself in it.

A leather-suede fragrance: sophisticated, elegant, androgynous, lascivious, seductive, the smell of luxury and royalty. Opus XI is basically, a suede-styrax scent blended with resins and woods to strengthen and enrich the suede, 2 sprays are enough to leave a cluster of seduction and mystery around you. High-quality ingredients and performance. If you love leather-suede fragrances this is probably one of the best. Masterpiece.

You won't wear this juice, this juice will wear you!

After Interlude Man, I regard any Amouage offering in a blue bottle as suspect. That was a perfume that insisted on wearing me and I gave up on it completely after sitting through its insistence for a few tries. Now here comes Opus XI – with marjoram instead of oregano, but with predictions of ‘beast mode', big, butch leather, and little evolution. It's no wonder I've had my sample in a drawer for months, looking at it from time to time and ultimately deciding to try something else instead.
But no more dithering – time to take the leap.
And I'm relieved to report that sometimes I can be a silly scaredy cat. Amouage somewhat spuriously claim that Opus XI ‘illustrates the inimitable dynamics of Oud'. Instead, what is on offer is a rather remarkable woody leather, lightly handled, invigoratingly fresh in feel (like a splice taken from the barbershop gene) with gorgeous clean smoke and a suggestion of the fragrant wood that that smoke arose from which slowly becomes more prominent as the wear progresses. It could have been a heavy, knuckle-dragging mess but is instead lively and bracing – a go-out-and-face-the-day kind of perfume with a diffuse but far from overbearing sillage.
Slowly one's perception of it broadens and sweetish half-green-half-floral notes emerge in the mix and the wood behind the smoke becomes more evident – slightly peppery, but also with a smoothness that is the right side of dreamy. It has that pleasing quality of being both layered and simple at once and the blend seems like perfection itself.
A few hours into the wear I was thinking: ‘This is a remarkable, sophisticated, polished thing that may even win around those who don't care for ouds or leathers. I haven't felt so excited by an Amouage since Dia Man.'
But then Opus XI truly settled and it underwent a contraction – it became denser, a much more standard smoky woody with most of the freshness gone, and correspondingly it sat closer to the skin. Still good, but no sale. Staying power is 24 hours (and probably longer, but I shower every day).

extremely beautiful composition, but also extremely simple. powerful and bold, but again extremely simple. definitely long-lasting, but not the typical kitchensink barnstorm I typically prefer. but that says a lot for how masterfully this is blended, it somehow never gets boring. but, as a couple have said in various reviews online, it does indeed smell like a very gorgeous place or a very gorgeous thing, rather than a hodgepodge mixed cocktail (which, again, I typically prefer)... this stuff is so excellent that I bought a full bottle, and it will be my signature scent for the next couple years, and i've never had any regrets wearing this anywhere, there have never been any passive-aggressive complaints meanwhile I've received a few rapt-exasperated compliments.

This is something else. And not something I could see myself wearing. It lists woodleather as a note and that is what I mainly get. But, Opus XI is not just a woody in leather fragrance, it smells like a place more than a personal fragrance. Like an old cabin and a horse's saddle. For the right butch man or woman, it could be alluring.